Holder eye­ing more Test suc­cess

Ev­ery­body is young, ev­ery­body is look­ing to make their mark on the in­ter­na­tional cir­cuit so ev­ery­body is hun­gry for suc­cess.

SHAR­JAH, UAE, CMC: APTAIN JA­SON Holder has urged his West Indies side to “stay hun­gry” after they broke a pro­longed slump to beat Pak­istan by five wick­ets in the third and fi­nal Test here yes­ter­day to post their first Test win in 19 months. The all-rounder said the Windies had the mak­ings of a very good unit, but stressed it was im­por­tant to build on the Shar­jah suc­cess and be­gin to pro­duce more con­sis­tent per­for­mances in the fu­ture. Holder, who was pre­sid­ing over his first Test win, also called for the unit to be kept to­gether as he be­lieves they have the po­ten­tial to be­come a dom­i­nant Test force. “This is a very good group of guys. We’ve shown glimpses that we can com­pete, we’ve shown glimpses we have what it takes to com­pete at this level,” said Holder, who turns 25 to­mor­row. “For us, it’s just a mat­ter of con­sis­tency. We mustn’t get com­pla­cent. We have no rea­son to be com­pla­cent. One Test vic­tory, by all

Cmeans, is not enough. It’s a sit­u­a­tion where we have to stay hun­gry, and that’s some­thing I re­ally be­lieve we have in the group.

“Ev­ery­body is young, ev­ery­body is look­ing to make their mark on the in­ter­na­tional cir­cuit, so ev­ery­body is hun­gry for suc­cess. And one thing I re­ally en­joy in this dress­ing room is that ev­ery­body is happy for each other’s suc­cess.”

GOOD MATCHES

He con­tin­ued: “It’s just a sit­u­a­tion where I think we need to stay to­gether. We need to be given some time to­gether as a group to gel, to un­der­stand one an­other, to play some good solid cricket.

“We’ve def­i­nitely shown it here. We’ve com­peted against In­dia [ear­lier this year], we had a good last few Test matches in Aus­tralia [last year], so it’s a sit­u­a­tion where we need to string to­gether con­sis­tent per­for­mances over an ex­tended pe­riod of time.

“I have no doubt we will get back on the right track in or­der to take West Indies cricket back up to the top.”

West Indies completed an em­phatic vic­tory at the Shar­jah Cricket Sta­dium when they eas­ily chased down a mod­est tar­get of 153.

They re­sumed the fi­nal day on 114 for five, still re­quir­ing 39 runs for vic­tory, but opener Kraigg Brath­waite and wick­et­keeper-bats­man Shane Dowrich both stroked 60 not out in stretch­ing their overnight un­bro­ken six­th­wicket stand to 87 to rule out any chance of de­feat.

Holder said that after losses in the first Test in Dubai and the sec­ond Test in Abu Dhabi, he was proud of the way West Indies had re­bounded to win here.

“If I could sum up my feel­ings right now in one word, I’d just say ‘proud’ – proud of the char­ac­ter which the guys showed, proud of the fight they showed on the back of a lot of crit­i­cism here and there,” he ex­plained.

“It’s been a tough year, and for the guys to come out in this last Test match and per­form the way they did – and not only this Test match. I thought we were com­pet­i­tive the en­tire se­ries, and just to show that com­mit­ment, that willpower, that never-say-die at­ti­tude, it’s re­ally, re­ally com­mend­able and makes me feel re­ally proud.”

He added: “One Test match vic­tory does not make us a world-beat­ing side, but it’s just a sit­u­a­tion where we’ve shown peo­ple we can do it. We’ve com­peted with Pak­istan through­out this en­tire se­ries.

“We fell short in Dubai. I thought we were ba­si­cally out­played in Abu Dhabi but still man­aged to come up with one of the high­est fourth in­nings to­tals there in that Test match and to come here now and just fin­ish an ac­tual game on the win­ning side is just a won­der­ful feel­ing.”

Seamer Holder played a piv­otal role in the vic­tory, com­ing up with his maiden ca­reer Test five-wicket haul to help bun­dle Pak­istan out for 208 in their sec­ond in­nings and put the Windies in com­mand.

He said the per­for­mance was an in­spir­ing per­sonal achieve­ment.

“Play­ing cricket for West Indies is some­thing I al­ways dreamt of do­ing and I’m here to­day play­ing cricket for West Indies, and to be able to win a Test match – win any cricket game for West Indies – means a lot to me per­son­ally,” he noted.

“But to be a big fac­tor in terms of con­tribut­ing to the team win is ob­vi­ously a heart­en­ing feel­ing for me and one which I re­ally, re­ally take to heart and will go a long way for me go­ing for­ward in the fu­ture.”